Horror comics were among the first comic books published--ghastly tales that soon developed an avid young readership, along with a bad reputation. Parent groups, psychologists, even the United States government joined in a crusade to wipe out the horror comics industry--and they almost succeeded. Yet the genre survived and flourished, from the 1950s to today. This history covers the tribulations endured by horror comics creators and the broader impact on the comics industry. The genre's ultimate success helped launch the careers of many of the biggest names in comics. Their stories and the stories of other key players are included, along with a few surprises.

Censored out of existence by Congress in the 1950s, rare comic book images--many of which have been rarely seen since they were first issued--are now revealed once again in all of their eye-popping inventive outrageousness. Original.

This volume explores how horror comic books have negotiated with the social and cultural anxieties framing a specific era and geographical space. Paying attention to academic gaps in comics’ scholarship, these chapters engage with the study of comics from varying interdisciplinary perspectives, such as Marxism; posthumanism; and theories of adaptation, sociology, existentialism, and psychology. Without neglecting the classical era, the book presents case studies ranging from the mainstream comics to the independents, simultaneously offering new critical insights on zones of vacancy within the study of horror comic books while examining a global selection of horror comics from countries such as India (City of Sorrows), France (Zombillénium), Spain (Creepy), Italy (Dylan Dog), and Japan (Tanabe Gou’s Manga Adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft), as well as the United States. One of the first books centered exclusively on close readings of an under-studied field, this collection will have an appeal to scholars and students of horror comics studies, visual rhetoric, philosophy, sociology, media studies, pop culture, and film studies. It will also appeal to anyone interested in comic books in general and to those interested in investigating intricacies of the horror genre.

Providing an overview of the dynamic field of comics and graphic novels for students and researchers, this Essential Guide contextualises the major research trends, debates and ideas that have emerged in Comics Studies over the past decades. Interdisciplinary and international in its scope, the critical approaches on offer spread across a wide range of strands, from the formal and the ideological to the historical, literary and cultural. Its concise chapters provide accessible introductions to comics methodologies, comics histories and cultures across the world, high-profile creators and titles, insights from audience and fan studies, and important themes and genres, such as autobiography and superheroes. It also surveys the alternative and small press alongside general reference works and textbooks on comics. Each chapter is complemented by list of key reference works.

More tales of horror in the macabre Marvel manner! The horror-comic boom of the 1970s illuminated the dark corners of the Marvel Universe, revealing a host of fearsome figures! Enter Blade, the vampire hunter! Stake in hand, his bloodlust for bloodsuckers leads him into conflict with Dracula, Morbius and the Legion of the Damned! But why is Blade immune to vampire bites? Those who consume human flesh in the north woods of Canada fall prey to the curse of... the Wendigo! The savage beast with with the haunting cry goes to-to-toe with the Hulk, Wolverine and Alpha Flight! Then meet Satana, soul-stealing daughter of the Devil, banished from Hell! Will the seductive succubus' human side win out over her demonic nature? Find out, together with her brother, Daimon Hellstrom -- plus Spider-Man and a possessed Doctor Strange! Shattered by the traumatic death of his wife, Hodiah Twist retreats into the persona of the world's greatest detective! But his skepticism is put to the test by vampires, werewolves and more! Evil men beware Lilith, daughter of Dracula and Queen of the Undead! Slain by her father, Lilith can possess any woman who hates her own patriarch! And that includes... Kitty Pryde of the X-Men?! War is Hell for John Kowalski! A soldier found guilty of treason, he is cursed to die a thousand times, leaping from life to life, striving to atone for his sins before Death claims him over and over again! Where monsters dwell, so goes Ulysses Bloodstone! Granted immortality by the ruby gem embedded in his chest, he has walked the Earth for millennia, hunting down unholy creatures across the ages! But what 1,000-year-old mission of revenge drives the melancholy merman that men shall call Manphibian? The classic exploits of all these supernatural sensations are collected in a single, spine-tingling volume... as Marvel Horror Lives Again!

Printing Terror places horror comics of the Cold War in dialogue with the anxieties of their age. It rejects the narrative of horror comics as inherently, and necessarily, subversive and explores, instead, the ways in which these texts manifest white male fears over America’s changing sociological landscape. It examines two eras: the pre-CCA period of the 1940s up to 1954, and the post-CCA era to 1975. The book examines each of these periods through the lenses of war, gender, and race, demonstrating that horror comics at this time were centered on white male victimhood and the monstrosity of the gendered and/or racialised other. It is of interest to scholars of horror, comics studies, and American history.

"Bleed," Part Five You can never go home, said Sol, way back in issue two. Let's see if he was right.